Lost in one world or another

Today I was on my way to work on Line 10 and I saw the standard row of eyeballs locked in on their screens. Next to this row of zoned out individuals there happened to be someone that appeared to be mentally handicapped in the row. It was something that grabbed my attention.

I’ve always thought about how ridiculous it is that everyone is glued to their phones all the time but the harsh contrast of this person sitting next to them really put a new light on it. Instead of being so locked into the world of their phones this individual was clearly lost in their own thoughts.

It made me wonder about why people have this irresistible urge to be constantly fixated on something. And before people go ahead and say this is a new phenomenon with cell phones (which is what I thought) apparently this has always been going forever.

Someone showed me this photo of commuters in the 40’s all locked in on their newspapers. Why is it that we as humans can’t take a moment to sit and do nothing? Let me know in the comments what this photo makes you think of.